Coin collector



Nov. 26, 1935.

L. H. CHASE COIN COLLECTOR Filed Jan. 8, 1955 /NVENTOR .fcf/ASE ATTORNEY Patented Nov. 26, 1935 LIJIvITrS-.b STATES PATENT OFFICE COINCOLLECTOR Application January 8, 1935', Serial No. 927

1 Claim.

This invention relates to coin collectors and more particularly to meansfor preventing the fraudulent collection of money from refund chutes oftelephone coin collectors.

In connection with prepayment coin collectors of the type commonly usedat .telephone pay stations it is the practice to refund money to patronswhen calls are not completed. Unscrupulous individuals have occasionallytaken advantage of this feature of the coin collector by obstructing thecoin refund chute. thus preventing the return of the coins to theirrightful owners Whenca-lls have not been completed and later removingthe obstruction and appropriating the accumulated coins.

One of' the objects of this invention consists in providing coincollectorA apparatus which will detect the presence of an ob-structionand sound anal'arm or otherwise prevent the obstructor from obtainingcoinswhich would ordinarily be refunded to the telephone patrons.

In accordance withl the preferred embodiment of,v thisinvention thedetection of any stuning in the refund chute is secured by anarrangement whichcauses any coin held in the refund chute because of thestuffing, to close an electrical circuit for actuating an alarm, forexample. This may be accomplished by providing in the bottom` o f therefund chute a strip of insulating material containing a plurality ofelectrical ter minals so wired that a coin resting on the strip willcomplete a circuit through two of the contact members to an alarmlocated on the premises or at some remote point. The closing of such analarm circuit, therefore, relies upon the accumulation of coins in therefund chute rather than upon the pressure exerted by the stuffingmaterial as in proposals heretofore made. It will generally be foundadvisable to provide means for preventing the alarm from being soundedunless the circuit between the contact members in the insulating stripis closed for a longer time than that required for the passage of a coindown the chute in the normal operation of the device. One way ofYsecuring this delayed operation is by the use in the alarm circuit of aslow-operate relay.

This invention will be better understood by reference to the followingdetailed description taken in connection with the accompanying drawingin which:

Figure 1 is a side View partly in section of the lower part of the coincollector housing; and

Figs. 2, 3 and 4 represent various views of one form of the inventionadapted for use as the bottom wall of a coin refund chute.

For illustrative purposes this invention will be described inconnectionwith the type of telephone coin collector disclosed in the O.F. Forsl berg U. S. Patent 1,043,219, issued November 5, 1912. Only thelower part of such a coin collec-- tor housing is shown in Fig. l sincein itsv preferred form the invention is concerned primarily With `therefund chute of the collector. il() As explained in the Forsberg patentany coin deposited by a subscriber is temporarily held' Within a coinhopper 5 on a pivoted coin trap 6 normally supported by pivoted vane 'Iand the central oce operator by controlling magnet 8 M may actuate vane'I to allow trap' to drop and direct the deposited coin into a collectbox or into a refund chute Where the coin may be recovered by thesubscriber. As shown in Fig. 1 the refund chute has a sloping bottomWall 9 20 leading to a coin pocket I0 accessible to a patron by anopening. I I in the side Wall of the coin collector housing I2. Theupper part of the refundV chute is substantially shielded by a bailleplate I3 the lower edge of plate I3 being spaced 25.l from wall 9 adistance sufficient to allow for the ready discharge of all refundedcoins;

As previously stated, attempts are occasionally made to prevent refundedcoins from sliding down 'into coin pocket I0 by insertingV stuffing 8G'material through the opening I4 between wall 9 and the lower end ofbaiiie plate I3 to cause refunded coins -to be held in the upper part ofthe refund chute until the stuffing is later removed.

In. order to defeat this practice it is proposed 35 in accordance withthis invention to provide y means whereby any coin held in the upperpart of the refund chute vby stuiiing material or other- Wise willAcause an electric circuit to be closed for actuating an alarm or forother suitable pur- 40 poses. This may be accomplished by having spacedelectrical terminals along Wall 9so arranged that a restrained coin Willserve as a circuit closing member to actuate the alarm.

As shown more in detail in Figs. 2, 3, and 4 45 this coin contactingdevice may comprise a layer of insulating material I5 having a number ofbrass fasteners or eyelets I'l and I8 passing through the strip. Theheads of the eyelets lie above the surface of strip I5 while theiropposite 50 ends are insulatingly protected by a second insulating stripI6 suitably fastened to strip I5 at the points 24, 25. All of theeyelets I1 are electrically connected by wire I9 lying between the twostrips I5, I6 and similarly all eyelets I8 are 65.

electrically connected by a wire 2|). As shown in Fig. 1 wire I9 maylead-to ground while wire 20 is connected through a slow operating relay2| to battery and ground. Normally open contact 22 of relay 2| whenactuated serves to close an obvious circuit for an alarm device 23.

The front or coin contacting face of vthel strip I5 is shown in Fig. 2rwhile the reverse face is shown in Fig. 4 with a side view in Fig. 3.It Will be noted from Figs. 2 and 4 that the two outer rows of rivets oreyelets are electrically connected.

to wire I9 and the center row is electrically con# nected to Wire 29. Itwill, therefore, be apparent that any coin resting on the top of stripI5 will serve to close a circuit between wires |9 and 29 to sound alarm23 providing the coin remains on strip I5 for a time suicient toenergize relay 2|.

In applying this protective device to the coin collector refund chute ofFig. 1 the strips I5, I6 are preferably of substantially the saine widthas the refund chute and substantially completelyv cover back wall 9 ofthe chute from a point just out of sight opening up to a point adjacentthe coin hopper 5. The eyelet heads are, of course, placed on the sideopposite wall 9 with strip I5 protecting the eyelets from contact withwall 9. One of the strips l 5, for example, may extend for a substantialdistance beyond fastener 24 so that this extension may be positionedbetween vertical wall 21 and the adjacent vertical wall of-the coinhopper 5 and possibly turned over the top edge of wall 2'| to-hold thecontact device in position in the chute. This arrangement, therefore,provides a ready means for installing the contact device of thisinvention in a telephone coin collector already in service but if itshould be desired to make the contact device a permanent part of thecoin collector refund chute other arrangements will probably be foundmore satisfactory.

Normally and in Vthe absence of stufhng, all

Yrefunded coins simultaneously discharged from trap 6 will readily slidedown the strip I5 into coin pocket I0 but the operating time of relay 2|should be so adjusted that such coins will not close the circuit forrelay 2| for a time suflicient for its contacts to be closed to actuatethe alarm. However, if the coin or coins are prevented from reachingcoin pocket I0 because of stuffing inserted through opening I4 so thatthe coins remain in contact with terminals I1, I3 for 'an appreciabletime, relay 2| will be actuated to energize alarm device 23. It will beapparent that the closure of an electrical circuit produced by a coinheld on the upper face of strip |5 may be employed to operate otherdevices than relay 2| 5 or to perform other functions such as theprevention of further refunds until the refund chute is clear, forexample, in the manner disclosed in the United States application of P.E. Mills filed ing providing that the termina-ls are so spaced that anyrestrained coin will bridge the gap be- 15 tween one of the terminalsand one of the other set of terminals I8. It is also to be understoodthat the alarm device 23 may be located in the same premises as the coincollector housing I 2, or the alarm device 23 may be located at some 20remote point such as the telephone central oice.

While one particular embodiment has been chosen for illustrativepurposes it is to be understood that equivalent arrangements comingwithin the terms of the appended claim are also contem- 25 plated.

What is claimed is:

In combination, a coin collector housing, a refund chute in said housinghaving a downwardly sloping bottom wall leading to a coin pocketaccessible from outside said housing, means for discharging a depositedcoin into said chute, an elongated strip of insulating materialextending the length of a portion of said bottom wall, a set of spacedelectrical terminals electrically connected to each other and mounted onsaid strip, va second set of spaced electrical terminals electricallyconnected to each other and mounted on said strip, said terminals beinginsulated from said bottom wall but arranged to have terminals of thetwo sets conductively connected by a coin sliding down said refundchute, a signal device controlled by the bridging of said two sets ofterminals by a coin and means for preventing the actuation of saiddevice by said bridging until said sets have been bridged for a timeinterval greater than the normal time required for a refunded coin topass along said strip into said coin pocket. I

LELAND HENRY CHASE. B0

